Microfluidic model for in vitro acute Toxoplasma gondii infection and transendothelial migration.

The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) causes one of the most common human zoonotic diseases and infects approximately one-third of the global population. T.

Patient Safety Silence and Safety Nursing Activities: Mediating Effects of Moral Sensitivity.

Among the factors that threaten patient safety and quality of care due to the diversification and complication of hospital environments, nurses play a pivotal role regarding patient safety in the clinical setting. This study investigates the mediating effects of moral sensitivity on the relationship between nurses' patient safety silence and safety nursing activities and contributes to developing strategies. Nurses (n = 120) employed for at least one year in two university hospitals in Korea between 1 September and 30 October 2020 participated in the study.

The Effects of Nurses' Knowledge of Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment, Death Anxiety, Perceptions of Hospice on Their Attitudes toward Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment.

Purpose: This descriptive study investigated the effects of nurses' knowledge of withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, death anxiety, and perceptions of hospice care on their attitudes toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.

Methods: Data were collected from 262 nurses at tertiary hospitals, general hospitals, or primary hospitals in Busan, Korea, and statistically analyzed using the t-test, analysis of variance, the Scheffé test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and hierarchical regression analysis.

Results: The participants' scores were 3.

Medial Temporal Atrophy Alone is Insufficient to Predict Underlying Alzheimer's Disease Pathology.

Background: The medial temporal region is the earliest affected structure in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and its atrophy is known as the hallmark of AD. This study aimed to investigate the value of medial temporal atrophy (MTA) for detecting 18F-florbetaben positron emission tomography (PET)-proven AD pathology.

Methods: We retrospectively enrolled 265 subjects complaining of cognitive decline at a dementia outpatient clinic from March 2015 to December 2017.

Cancer-derived exosomes trigger endothelial to mesenchymal transition followed by the induction of cancer-associated fibroblasts.

Unlabelled: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play a pivotal role in tumor growth, but very little has been known about its characteristics and origin. Recently, cancer-derived exosome has been suggested to transdifferentiate CAFs, by a new mechanism of endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndMT), initiating angiogenic processes and triggering metastatic evolution. However, an enabling tool in vitro is yet to be developed to investigate complicated procedures of the EndMT and the transdifferentiation under reconstituted tumor microenvironment.

Does Late Levodopa Administration Delay the Development of Dyskinesia in Patients with De Novo Parkinson's Disease?

Background: It remains controversial whether late levodopa administration is a reasonable approach to reducing the risk of levodopa-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effects of levodopa sparing on the development of levodopa-induced dyskinesia.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records for patients with de novo Parkinson's disease who visited the Yonsei Parkinson Center between April 2009 and June 2015 and received at least 2 years of treatment.

Fabrication of type I collagen microcarrier using a microfluidic 3D T-junction device and its application for the quantitative analysis of cell-ECM interactions.

We presented a new quantitative analysis for cell and extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions, using cell-coated ECM hydrogel microbeads (hydrobeads) made of type I collagen. The hydrobeads can carry cells as three-dimensional spheroidal forms with an ECM inside, facilitating a direct interaction between the cells and ECM. The cells on hydrobeads do not have a hypoxic core, which opens the possibility for using as a cell microcarrier for bottom-up tissue reconstitution.

Intrinsic FGF2 and FGF5 promotes angiogenesis of human aortic endothelial cells in 3D microfluidic angiogenesis system.

The human body contains different endothelial cell types and differences in their angiogenic potential are poorly understood. We compared the functional angiogenic ability of human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) using a three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic cell culture system. HAECs and HUVECs exhibited similar cellular characteristics in a 2D culture system; however, in the 3D microfluidic angiogenesis system, HAECs exhibited stronger angiogenic potential than HUVECs.

Constructive remodeling of a synthetic endothelial extracellular matrix.

The construction of well-controllable in vitro models of physiological and pathological vascular endothelium remains a fundamental challenge in tissue engineering and drug development. Here, we present an approach for forming a synthetic endothelial extracellular matrix (ECM) that closely resembles that of the native structure by locally depositing basement membrane materials onto type 1 collagen nanofibers only in a region adjacent to the endothelial cell (EC) monolayer. Culturing the EC monolayer on this synthetic endothelial ECM remarkably enhanced its physiological properties, reducing its vascular permeability, and promoting a stabilized, quiescent phenotype.

Smooth muscle progenitor cells from peripheral blood promote the neovascularization of endothelial colony-forming cells.

Proangiogenic cell therapy using autologous progenitors is a promising strategy for treating ischemic disease. Considering that neovascularization is a harmonized cellular process that involves both endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, peripheral blood-originating endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFCs) and smooth muscle progenitor cells (SMPCs), which are similar to mature endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells, could be attractive cellular candidates to achieve therapeutic neovascularization. We successfully induced populations of two different vascular progenitor cells (ECFCs and SMPCs) from adult peripheral blood.

Extracellular matrix heterogeneity regulates three-dimensional morphologies of breast adenocarcinoma cell invasion.

Plasticity and reciprocity of breast cancer cells to various extracellular matrice (ECMs) are three-dimensionally analyzed in quantitative way in a novel and powerful microfluidic in vitro platform. This successfully demonstrates the metastatic potential of cancer cells and their effective strategies of ECM proteolytic remodeling and morphological change, while interacting with other cells and invading into heterogeneous ECMs.

A versatile assay for monitoring in vivo-like transendothelial migration of neutrophils.

Spatiotemporal analysis of the inflammatory response has been limited by the difficulties of in vivo imaging and reconstitution of inflammation in vitro. Here, we present a novel method for establishing in vivo-like inflammatory models in a microfluidic device and quantitatively measuring the three-dimensional transmigration of neutrophils during the inflammatory process. This enabled us to concurrently characterize transendothelial migration behaviors of neutrophils under the influence of various inflammatory stimuli.